Firefighters still stamping out Carlsbad blaze

Volunteers say fire is still very active

Shane Crimm from the Texas Forest Service gives an update on a fire near Carlsbad. The fire has now burned up to 10,000 acres of land. Apr. 12, 2011.

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Special to the Standard-Times/Jim Bean
Smoke from the Encino 2 Fire in northwest Tom Green County can be seen clearly from an aircraft as fires burn about a dozen miles outside San Angelo. The fire has burned about 11,000 acres.

SAN ANGELO, Texas - While firefighters with half a dozen Tom Green County volunteer departments responded to rekindled wildfires near Carlsbad all day Tuesday, the East Concho volunteer fire department stood by, ready to respond to any fires that might spring up in all the areas of the county left without fire trucks.

"That fire is still very active," said Dennis Thompson, an East Concho volunteer. "There's been Wall out there, and Water Valley, Carlsbad, Grape Creek, Christoval and Dove Creek.

"They left us to cover anything (else) that would happen."

Thompson said he didn't want to jinx his volunteers, but that they've been lucky so far that nothing else has flared up in the area.

Firefighters were still fighting hot spots from the Encino 2 fire, which the Texas Forest Service reported was 20 percent contained as of Tuesday morning.

The continuous duty has been hard on volunteers.

"Everybody has lives and jobs, and fighting this fire has taken away from both of those," Texas Forest Service spokesman Shane Crimm said. "It's extremely taxing on the local volunteer fire department personnel."

Emergency Management Coordinator Ron Perry said a great effort was made Monday night that stopped flames from spreading. County road and bridge crews, which had been at the fire since Sunday, were released Monday night.

Crimm said firefighters Tuesday were focusing their attention north of Arden Road and east of Burma Road.

An estimated 12,659 acres burned in the fire, which officials said was ignited Sunday by lightning. Dozens of homes were threatened, according to the release, but Sgt. Christina Lopez, the Tom Green County Sheriff's Department public affairs spokeswoman, said only two structures were slightly damaged.

Both houses were off Arden Road, she said.

Lopez said the Texas Forest Service, Tom Green County units and the Texas Department of Transportation were still at the fire. About 14 agencies responded to the fire, which burned about 13 miles west of San Angelo.

In the past seven days, the forest service has responded to 78 fires burning 385,098 acres statewide. More than 180 counties are reporting burn bans.

According to the National Weather Service website, San Angelo has had 1.10 inches of rain since January. The normal value for this time of year is 3.42 inches.

Perry said agencies will likely work through Wednesday to control the Encino 2 fire. Tuesday, hot spots covered anywhere from one to 10 acres each, but officials said a change in wind strength and direction was in their favor. Gusts were blowing in from the south and southeast, and pushing the fire back into pasture it had already burned.

"In no way shape or form are any part of San Angelo, or any of the surrounding communities, threatened at this time," Perry said Tuesday afternoon.

In emergency situations, such as a brush fire, personnel revert to an Incident Command System in which a ground commander is in charge of operations. Strike teams — which can be made up of bulldozer drivers, firefighters or safety people — receive their tasks from the commander.

Perry said about 300 men and women made up as many as 15 to 20 strike teams during the two-day fire.

Firefighters drove dozing equipment ahead of the blaze and built a wide firebreak next to the fence line near Arden Road, Perry said.

"Then crews lit a backfire all along the inside of what we built," Perry said. "When we did that it took all the fuel away from the fire that was approaching."

Over the past five days wildfire has raged across West Texas, much of it in the far west of the state, but the Concho Valley has gotten a share of the flames. According to the Forest Service, approximately 540 acres burned in a fire 20 miles southwest of Bronte. The Coke County blaze was 70 percent contained as of 3 a.m. Tuesday.

Winds ranged from 15 to 25 miles per hour Monday and were primarily out of the northwest, according to the National Weather Service in San Angelo.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, San Angelo conditions are classified as extreme drought. No rain is expected in the next week, said Hector Guerrero, warning and coordinator meteorologist for the NWS in San Angelo. The next 30 days are expected to stay below the normal rainfall amounts.

"Back in the fall, we were talking about La Niña and what it could bring to the region," Guerrero said. "(One of) the items we could see was drought."

With La Niña weakening, meteorologists hope that the area will begin to see more chances for rain. Sunday night's rain to the east could be a good sign.

"That was better than what we've seen in a long time," he said. "We're hoping our spring rains should show up. We're just not for certain how this weakening La Niña will affect the weather."